Long-eared Owl – Optics4Birding Nature Blog Networkhttp://www.optics4birding.com/blog
Animals, Birds and Nature in depth articlesWed, 31 Jan 2018 21:38:19 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.5Anza-Borrego Super-Bloomhttp://www.optics4birding.com/blog/anza-borrego-super-bloom/
Fri, 26 May 2017 23:55:34 +0000http://www.optics4birding.com/blog/?p=1190Just when you think you understand things a little, along comes an event that puts you in your place! The rainfall here on the west coast of the United States in 2017 has been a bit odd. Very welcome, to be sure, but a bit odd. We greatly exceeded expected rainfall this winter and spring. […]

Just when you think you understand things a little, along comes an event that puts you in your place! The rainfall here on the west coast of the United States in 2017 has been a bit odd. Very welcome, to be sure, but a bit odd. We greatly exceeded expected rainfall this winter and spring. From Washington down to northern California, experts declared an official end to a drought that lasted about a decade. This refilled reservoirs and lakes in that region to capacity.

In southern California, the rain didn’t erase that long drought as completely, but it still had staggering effects locally. One factor that makes the rain so odd is that it occurred completely outside the Pacific oscillation cycle. The El Nino and La Nina events govern these oscillations. These rains at Anza-Borrego State Park produced a huge wildflower super-bloom. That greatly benefited White-lined Sphinx moths and their predators.

Borrego – a.k.a. Desert Bighorn Sheep

A Desert Bighorn Sheep (“Borrego”) ram

Whenever southern California gets strong winter rains, it’s always great to visit Anza-Borrego State Park. There, and the area around the town of Borrego Springs respond to rain with a huge wildflower bloom. This wildflower explosion occurs, to some extent, annually, and it is always beautiful to see. But this year’s display was one of the best in decades. There hasn’t been a bloom like this one since 1997, which was an El Nino year, by the way. The rains are a boon to all kinds of wildlife in the desert around Borrego Springs. Even creatures superbly adapted to an existence without major rainfall welcome plentiful precipitation.

Driving to see the wildflowers, we found one of the region’s iconic creatures : Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni). In fact, “borrego” is a Spanish word for these sheep. Hence, the name of the park and town. We found a group of five Desert Bighorn rams among the boulders and cacti of a steep slope.

Sphinx Moth Caterpillars

A typical White-lined Sphinx Moth caterpillar

The mass emergence of of the White-lined Sphinx Moth (Hyles lineata) caterpillars follows the winter rains and the wildflower bloom. The caterpillars always emerge en masse, as a way of avoiding predation. They use the sheer weight of numbers to ensure that at least some survive. The surviving ones pupate, emerge as moths and restart the cycle. Other insects, like mayflies and cicadas use this same strategy. The caterpillars devour the flowers with gusto. In years of less rainfall with fewer flowers, they can polish off a wildflower bloom in a matter of weeks.

A black variant of White-lined Sphinx Moth caterpillar

The other survival tactic of the caterpillars is tremendous variability in color pattern. A typical White-lined Sphinx Moth caterpillar is lime green, with black and yellow stripes running the length of its body. Bright red spots often punctuate the black lines. But we also saw some caterpillars that had greatly reduced black so that they appeared more strongly green. Some had bright green heads and tails; others had orange or reddish heads and tails. The most extreme caterpillars showed completely black bodies, with just a few longitudinal dashed lines of yellow, green or orange.

What is the point of all this variability? The answer is that it helps ensure that some of the caterpillars will escape detection and survive. Who is doing the detection? Well that’s the next piece of this biological mosaic. There are multiple predators of the caterpillars, but the most prominent and magnificent is the Swainson’s Hawk.

Swainson’s Hawks

A light-phase Swainson’s Hawk resumes its migration

Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsoni) are a migratory hawk of the western and central states. Their breeding range extends into eastern Alaska and western Canada. It includes 21 states, 6 Canadian provinces and 4 Mexican states. Virtually the entire population of Swainson’s Hawk winters in north central Argentina, thousands of miles south. As fits a long-distance migrant like that, Swainson’s Hawks have narrower, more-pointed wings than other buteos, for more efficient flight.

One population of Swainson’s Hawks migrates through the area of Anza-Borrego and Borrego Springs. There they take up residence for a week or two on their way north. The hawks time their arrival and departure to coincide with the sphinx moth caterpillar emergence, a delicate balance. Swainson’s Hawks arrive, gorge on caterpillars, regain their strength and then take off for more northern breeding grounds. It is likely, though difficult to prove, that hawk predation drives the emergence and camouflage strategy of sphinx moth caterpillars. This reminds us that the “natural selection” is always a negative event. Natural selection removes the unfit rather than selecting for the fittest. From a caterpillar’s point of view, becoming lunch constitutes a negative event!

Long-eared Owls

A roosting Long-eared Owl in Anza-Borrego State Park

On the way home, we stopped at Tamarisk Campground, another unit of Anza-Borrego State Park. The campsites nestle into a large grove of Tamarisk trees. Birders know this spot well because historically, it often houses a roost of Long-eared Owls (Asio otus). Normally, one wouldn’t give away such a location because photographers and birders may disturb the roosting owls. Owls typically are very sensitive to such things. However, many people already know this site. So perhaps it may be of benefit as a place to learn about the beautiful owls through first-hand experience.

Sure enough, when we arrived, there were already people clustering around a single owl perched fortuitously in the open. We stopped and quietly took photos. When the crowd grew larger and noisier, we hushed them and explained why it was important. We were gratified at how well people responded to this instruction and complied with our requests. They became much more quiet, backing off a distance, and speaking only in hushed tones. All in all, it was a wonderful end to a very beautiful day.

]]>Zeiss Victory SF Experience Tour – Part 2http://www.optics4birding.com/blog/zeiss-victory-sf-experience-tour-part-2/
Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:30:19 +0000http://staging.optics4birding.com/blog/?p=42Neusiedler See For our first day of birding on the Zeiss Victory SF tour, we boarded the bus in Vienna at 6:30 the next morning and headed for Neusiedl am See, our base of operations for the rest of the tour. Neusiedl am See is located on a large lake, the Neusiedler See, in the […]

Neusiedler See

For our first day of birding on the Zeiss Victory SF tour, we boarded the bus in Vienna at 6:30 the next morning and headed for Neusiedl am See, our base of operations for the rest of the tour. Neusiedl am See is located on a large lake, the Neusiedler See, in the southeastern part of Austria, nestled in the wine country near the Hungarian border. This lake has extensive marshy edges, making it a haven for waterfowl, herons and shorebirds. With laudable directness, we drove right past our lodgings and got straight to the birding, traveling clockwise round to the southeastern shore of the Neusiedler See.

Geese and Shorebirds

Greylag Goose at the Neusiedler See

Our first target was a family of Hoopoes, but along the way, other birds started to show up. Kestrels hovered and dipped over the fields and vineyards. We saw our first White Storks, sitting on nests on top of buildings like something out of a childhood story. Close to the See, water birds appeared on the little marshy lakes. We saw Shelduck, Greylag Goose and other waterfowl, plus our first glimpses of Avocets and Black-winged Stilts along the muddy shores. Koinrad Lorentz wrote about these geese decades ago. I loved seeing them!

The occasional Marsh Harrier passed overhead, sending everything rocketing skyward. The Hoopoes didn’t disappoint, with an adult foraging on the ground with several sub-adults. Their outlandish crests counter-balanced their long decurved bills, and reddish neck feathers above zebra-striped wings. And the crisp optics on the Victory SF binoculars made the colors and details just pop! A pair of Red-backed Shrikes (photo) and Turtle-Doves purring from the trees soon distracted us from the water birds.

From the Platform

We walked out to an elevated observation platform and the birds kept coming thick and fast. Sedge Warblers sang, popped into view, and were instantly gone again. We heard the low thump of a Bittern, and watched it lift from the marsh and fly ponderously by. Great Reed Warblers sang loudly from hidden perches, sounding a bit like Yellow-breasted Chats. Our first Garganeys showed, looking sharp, followed by a really snazzy bird: Red-crested Pochard! Once, a Squacco Heron flew by a few of us, the only one of the trip. Whiskered Terns coursed low over the marsh.

We saw and heard our first Common Redshanks, which put on quite a show, flying around and calling. A splash of color and song in a distant bush proved to be our first Reed Bunting, a really sharp-looking bird with a black hood, white neck ring and moustachial, reddish-brown back and white mixed in with predominantly black rectrices. A buzzy song like a Grasshopper Sparrow turned out to be a Corn Bunting, with Skylarks lifting into the air and singing around it.

Spoonbils and Wagtails

White Wagtail carrying food

The next stop added our first Spoonbills and Common Pochards, along with Great Crested Grebes, White Wagtails, Black-headed Gulls and more. Having only seen Black-headed Gulls as vagrants in basic plumage here in the U.S., viewing them in full alternate with their black heads was quite a treat. A distant male Black-tailed Godwit in full alternate plumage was a really gorgeous find, with its rusty orange head and neck, mostly reddish upswept bill, and black hatching across the upper breast. For me, this was a bit of closure: “blackwit” was my fourth and final of the world’s godwit species. Next to appear were fly-by Pygmy Cormorants and Yellow-legged Gulls. Pygmy Cormorants differ from our cormorants in having a distinctly brownish head, stubby short bill, pale yellow-orange gape and a white throat.

Our next location featured a stakeout Penduline Tit nest, with both male and female tending the tightly woven purse-like nest. Both parents work to line the nest heavily with cottonwood fluff. The nest hangs from the “handle” portion of the purse, with openings out either side, and it, rather than the birds’ habit of suspending themselves upside down, is the source of their common name. These tits look like very jazzed up Bushtit, with a whitish-gray head, black mask (like a Common Yellowthroat) and reddish tint to the upper wings. Penduline Tits (photo) have a down-slurred call note reminiscent of a Lesser Goldfinch, which, once learned, makes their nests easy to find. We saw at least 10 nests on the trip.

Eurasian Goldfinch and a Red Admiral

European Goldfinch

The other bird drawing notice here was a Eurasian Goldfinch that posed obligingly on an open willow branch. Amazingly, it sat there while the entire group closed in and collectively took several terabytes of photos in a matter of seconds. This goldfinch is a common hedge and garden bird all over Europe, but what a gorgeous one! We also saw many Red Admiral butterflies here, the same species found here in the state.

Long-eared Owls

Adult Long-eared Owl

We visited a communal roost of Long-eared Owls, with both adults and sub-adults present. This is the same species as our Long-eared Owl, and they are just as arresting there as here, when encountered. Sometimes, they are surprisingly difficult to locate. Thus, it was unclear just how many owls were roosting here; the more one looked, the more there were. (Juvenile Long-eared Owl Photo)

Here, a partially fledged Kestrel peaked our interest. European Kestrels differ substantially from our American Kestrels. They are larger, more long-tailed, and reddish on the back with grayish blue head and upper tail. Similar to our kestrels, they frequent open country, sitting on power lines or hovering over the fields. They aggressively attack larger raptors like the common Buzzard (a buteo relative of our Red-tailed Hawk), where their aerial agility earns them some respect. A handsome juvenile perched on a low branch of a sapling cottonwood. There it tolerated closer approach than an adult would allow, affording great looks.

Raptors and Warblers

Fledgling Kestrel

Our next stop was a reedy canal right on the Hungarian border. When you walked to the other side of the footbridge, you crossed into Hungary! Our target here was a common bird: Great Reed Warbler. Skulking birds like this are often hard to get really good looks at. But here, we managed to coax one of these 7.5-inch Old World warblers into the open where it repeatedly sang its chat-like song. Next was an active nest of the Eastern Imperial Eagle, a relative of our Golden Eagle, slightly smaller, with much darker overall coloration on the body, back and wings but the same golden head plumes.

This nest occurred in a preserve; thus we could not stop within a kilometer of the nest. So we observed from a respectful distance. One dark, downy chick was visible sitting up in the nest, and the two parents perched on an exposed branch of a nearby tree, allowing us to see the tremendous sexual dimorphism common to raptors, with the female being markedly more massive than her mate.

Great Bustards on a Lek

From there, we continued in the same preserve, hitting a trifecta of great birds. First we saw a hunting male Montagu’s Harrier, smaller and sleeker than our Northern Harrier. Monties show inky black wingtips and a diagnostic black bar in the pale gray secondaries. Effortlessly, this bird glided low over the contours of the hedge-lined fields.

But the next bird trumped even that: a displaying male Great Bustard. A Great Bustard, at about 40 pounds, is one of the world’s heaviest birds that’s still able to fly. Great Bustards reproduce in leks. In a delightful surprise, we got to watch a male display to three rather bored-looking females. He practically turned himself inside out for the girls, erecting and everting his tail. Next, he flipped his wings inside out and held them flat against his flanks. Then he puffied out a great whitish throat sac, and lifted the white whiskers on each side of his bill. All the while, he strutted and bowed, sometimes turning his head upside down. Meanwhile, he continuously uttered a low-frequency call that was flat-out rude, sounding like someone in severe gastrointestinal distress.

We watched at a distance of perhaps a third of a mile from an elevated platform. Hence, convection currents pretty much destroyed any chance of good photos, but what a great bird!! Lastly, our sharp-eyed guide, Dr. Gerry Dobler, found a Black Stork, our first of this rarer European stork species, circling over a distant pine grove. Scope views of this soaring bird revealed the diagnostic flash of greenish iridescence on its back as it circled. A tired but very happy crew of birders stumbled into dinner that evening!

]]>Excursion into the Eastern Sierra Mountainshttp://www.optics4birding.com/blog/excursion-eastern-sierras/
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 03:35:22 +0000http://staging.optics4birding.com/blog/?p=46This last Memorial Day weekend (5/24-5/26) we decided to take a look in the Eastern Sierra Nevada for Broad-tailed Hummingbird. After much research on where to look… we found none. I had hoped, as we blog on the regular occurring California hummingbirds, this last one might be easier. On the other side of the coin […]

This last Memorial Day weekend (5/24-5/26) we decided to take a look in the Eastern Sierra Nevada for Broad-tailed Hummingbird. After much research on where to look… we found none. I had hoped, as we blog on the regular occurring California hummingbirds, this last one might be easier. On the other side of the coin we did find some interesting places and interesting birds in our Eastern Sierra exploration.

We left on Saturday after work and headed north. By the time we got up into the southern part of the Eastern Sierras it was late at night. Our first stop was to look for Long-eared Owl just south of Bishop. Searching for owls in unfamiliar areas is difficult enough. Adding the navigation on dirt roads on a moonless night. While trying to find proper habitat. Once out in the unfamiliar dark desert, I figured I may have underestimated the challenge. All of this said I was very surprised when an owl found me.

An Attack

We had stopped to check a small group of trees and in my typical fashion I quietly slipped under the trees and began to hoot to see if anyone might answer. Just then, a Long-eared Owl attacked me. It was a shock! Crash, talons first, square in the forehead he hit me hard. Wow, am I glad he missed my eyes! The owl had come in so low and it was so dark that I had never seen him. Feeling his sharp talons right before his chest collided into my forehead is a vivid impression. Luckily no damage other than a minor scratch on my forehead. Getting up from the ground I had to gain a moment of composure. Back to business, I took the picture of him shown here (above left). So we were off to a good start!

American Dipper

American Dipper in the Eastern Sierra Mountains

After a few hours of sleep we left Bishop in the early morning for Tom’s place to “not find” Broad-tailed Hummingbird. Heading up in elevation from there we checked several other spots for possible Calliope and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds. No hummingbirds, although we did manage to find an American Dipper nesting under a small bridge at the Rock Creek Lodge. For the readers here unfamiliar with this species, he forages under water in fast moving mountain streams using his wings to swim. American Dipper is a birders’ favorite because of his distinctiveness. The picture at the right shows him standing in the stream after his last food delivery.

Tom’s Place

The were a couple other birds of interest as we came back down the hill towards Tom’s Place. Photos of them are below. Spotted Towhee is the first photo. (below left) The towhees of this area have a different song and it was really a surprise when we found this bird singing so differently from our coastal towhees. There may be a division of this species into coastal and Great Basin subspecies. The next photo (2nd on bottom left) is a Clark’s Nutcracker. Last of the pictures directly below is a comparative photo of two Cassin’s Finches. The bird on the left is what you expect to see and the one on the right is a bird with no streaking on his underside – very unusual.

Mono Lake

Last of our stops before returning home was Mono Lake. Although we had been north of here in our hummingbird searches, a trip into the Eastern Sierras would not be complete without a stop here. The first photo (below-left) is a Sage Thrasher. This is a very reliable spot to find this bird since they breed here in the dry sagebrush along the lakeside. The next photo is a Violet-green Swallow. These Violet-green Swallows were extremely colorful. I have never seen these quite this colorful. They are abundant along the lakeside.

]]>Big Morongo Field Triphttp://www.optics4birding.com/blog/big-morongo-field-trip/
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:30:35 +0000http://staging.optics4birding.com/blog/?p=149I recently led a field trip for the Sea & Sage Audubon chapter to Big Morongo Preserve in San Bernardino County, CA. Big Morongo Preserve sits upon the outflow of subterranean water that supports a marsh and cottonwood forest. Water anywhere in the Mojave desert always brings in migrant birds. Big Morongo is a place […]

]]>I recently led a field trip for the Sea & Sage Audubon chapter to Big Morongo Preserve in San Bernardino County, CA. Big Morongo Preserve sits upon the outflow of subterranean water that supports a marsh and cottonwood forest. Water anywhere in the Mojave desert always brings in migrant birds. Big Morongo is a place where desert inhabitants mingle with marsh and forest birds.

Yellow-breasted Chat singing at Big Morongo Preserve

We arrived at Covington Park at 6:00 for some early birding before the official field trip began at 7:00. The park was awash in song as Yellow Warblers shouted from the cottonwoods. A Summer Tanager proclaimed his turf and Eurasian Collared-Doves (yes, they’re here too!) called from the tamarisks along the road. In the dryer areas, Gambel’s Quail sang their odd songs. Meanwhile, a California Thrasher added sweetness and endless variety to the morning chorus.

Lesser and Lawrence’s Goldfinches were flying back and forth between town and the park. Big Morongo and Covington are one of the most reliable places in southern California to see Lawrence’s Goldfinch in spring. They are a beautiful bird with their greenish wingbars, gray and black faces and yellow chests. At 7:00, we tore ourselves away from the birds and went to collect the larger group.

Brown-crested Flycatcher hunting at Big Morongo

Big Morongo Preserve

I was fortunate to have with me Vic Leipzig, an experienced birder and field trip leader. We split the group of 20 birders in half so folks would have a better chance to see the birds. The often narrow and intimate trails of the preserve make this difficult for large groups. This worked perfectly. I took a group out on the Marsh and the Desert Loop Trails. Vic led his group on the Marsh, Mesquite and Canyon Trails.

The two groups found nearly identical lists of birds, with the exceptions being a calling Virginia Rail found by Vic’s group. My group caught fleeting glimpses of a gorgeous Cassin’s Vireo. Not everyone saw this bird, but all got to hear it’s halting, burry “elevator” song – “going up… going down…” Other highlights of the walk included great looks at the singing Yellow-breasted Chats, the Brown-crested Flycatchers and threatened Least Bell’s Vireos. We also got up close and personal with several Verdins in the mesquite trees.

Long-eared Owl roosting at Big Morongo

Covington Park

Next, we led the participants over to Covington Park for great looks at Bullock’s and Hooded Orioles. Summer and Western Tanagers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, and several pairs of Vermilion Flycatchers also lurked there. A Lark Sparrow was a pleasant surprise for the group. But the absolute glory of this stop was the pair of Long-eared Owls that. For the second year in a row, they raised a brood of chicks in the greater Morongo area. Our visit produced both adults and the youngest two of the five chicks they had this year.

We stopped to watch the bird traffic at the feeders across the street from the park. With a waterfall going, many of the birds from the park would fly across to this yard to bathe and drink before returning to the park. We had a group lunch there under the canopies in Covington Park. Some of the group left after that, but many continued with us to the Black Rock Canyon Campground unit of Joshua Tree National Park, roughly 20 miles further east near the town of Yucca Valley.

Red Diamondback Rattlesnake

Black Rock Canyon

We visited Black Rock for a chance at some of the desert specialties and it paid off handsomely. The Black-throated Sparrows practically stepped on our feet while singing to us. A pair of Scott’s Orioles was a bit more shy. But the male did give us extended views from a not-too-distant yucca plume. Additionally, there were singing Cactus Wrens, displaying Gambel’s Quail and calling Ash-throated Flycatchers. As a crowning touch, some Great Horned Owls were nesting in a large Joshua tree. Everyone got excellent looks at one very pale adult and three rather fuzzy chicks.

The snakes were also fabulous that day. We found this Red Diamondback Rattlesnake crossing the road, and it allowed close approach while scarcely even rattling at us. Near the Great Horned Owl nest, I caught a placid 5-foot Gopher Snake, giving people great views of it.

White-headed Woodpecker at Humber Park

San Jacinto Peak

By this point, we were down to just 9 people, but they were game for more. So we drove up to Idyllwild for a bit of mountain birding. We made a series of short stops, starting at Lake Fulmor, with a Hairy Woodpecker and several raucous Stellar’s Jays. Joining them were bunches of Mountain Chickadees and a host of Violet-green Swallows. Humber Park netted us Band-tailed Pigeons, Brown Creeper, singing Purple Finches. Finally, after a long search, a White-headed Woodpecker flew right over the cars! At Idyllwild County Park we finally found the Pygmy Nuthatches that had teased us all day. We also added Oak Titmouse and American Robin there. The day ended with a total of 78 species and a large group of happy customers.